The Merchant of Venice Essays
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Essay Topics for an Outstanding The Merchant of Venice Essay
Writing essays on a literary work is an exciting experience. You can analyse the text from various approaches and come up with a unique stance on the story, themes and characters. The whole enterprise becomes even more thrilling when you have to write Shakespeare Essays. Despite a vast array of literature available on Shakespeare, there is so much more one can discover with every consecutive reading of works of The Bard of Avon.
Whether you are writing The Merchant of Venice Essays, Twelfth Night Essays or Romeo and Juliet Essays, you can deliver a unique and interesting essay assignment by taking up lesser-discussed essay topics.
While the rest of your classmates write their Shakespeare Essays on the popular essay subjects, you can distinguish yourself by discussing the following aspects in The Merchant of Venice Essay Assignment:
Anti-Semitism in the Play The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice, also titled The Jew of Venice in the earlier versions, is a portrayal of Jews and the impression people had of them in the middle ages. Shylock is the titular Merchant/Jew of Venice depicted as cruel, materialistic and of murderous tendency. Anti-Semitism is the central theme of the play as Shakespeare narrates the story from Antonio’s point of view. When writing The Merchant of Venice Essays, you may bring to note the anti-Jewish references in the play or suggest the alternative version of the story had it been narrated from Shylock’s point of view.
Discussing The Merchant of Venice in light of Shakespeare’s concept of Comedy
None of Shakespeare’s plays can be strictly categorized into tragedy and comedy. Unlike the stark genre division in early times, the tragic and comic merge in Shakespeare’s oeuvre. His plays can be clubbed tragi-comedy as the comic and tragic themes intersect in one work. The Merchant of Venice, though categorized as a comedy because it has a happy conclusion, has graver themes. Analyse the play with reference to Shakespeare’s concept of tragi-comedy and show how his approach is successful in making his plays a faithful depiction of life.
Changing Gender Roles and their significance in the play The Merchant of Venice
Women in Shakespeare’s plays are depicted at par with the men folk. Most of Shakespeare’s heroines are intelligent and smart, having significance influence on the play’s development. Like Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing, Viola in Twelfth Night, Portia is Shakespeare’s muse who steers the play to a comic and happy end. She saves Antonio with her wit and brings to notice the flaw in the contract, something no one else could. Women in The play The Merchant of Venice are more competent than their men counterparts. The shift in gender roles depicts the status women enjoyed in the late sixteenth century-early seventeenth century England. When writing The Merchant of Venice Essay, you can do a comparative analysis of the heroines in all Shakespeare’s play with special reference to Portia, or analyse the importance of shifting gender roles as the narrative strategy Shakespeare employed in his plays.
